It’s always been a distinct possibility that the NHL was going to eventually turn to playing in empty arenas due to the circumstances around the coronavirus outbreak.
The Bruins and San Jose Sharks were looking at the possibility of playing in an empty SAP Center back in early March prior to the NHL regular season was quickly put on pause, and it looks like that may be the only way that professional sports can get back to work in the near term.
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The country’s most renowned infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, mentioned the possibility in a Snapchat interview on Wednesday while discussing the circumstances behind the world of sports getting back to business.
“There’s a way of doing that,” admitted Fauci. “Nobody comes to the stadium. Put [all of the players] in big hotels, wherever you want to play. [You] have them tested every week and make sure they don’t wind up infecting each other, or their family, and just let them play the season out.”
It certainly wouldn’t be easy on a number of different fronts when it comes to safely pulling off the games. The NHL would probably need to house multiple teams at regional locations where the games would be played to empty arenas, they would need universal, rapid testing to make certain nobody had tested positive for the virus and they would need professional athletes to essentially self-quarantine for the duration of their season.
NHL games would also likely have to be played sometime over July and August given all of the dominoes that would need to fall before games were actually played.
“It’s kind of bizarre,” said Charlie Coyle during a Zoom conference call with the Bruins media on Wednesday afternoon. “It seems like everything is up in the air and you don’t know what to expect. I know we’re going to try to finish the season off and do everything within our power to do that. But what the format is going to be like and what we can accomplish, I don’t know. I’m asking all of the same questions that all of you are. I hope we can finish everything off and do it in the right way.”
Boston Bruins
But all the effort would put the MLB, NHL, NFL, MLS and NBA back into business until a time when a widely available vaccine might someday allow for fans to pack back into the stadiums and arenas across North America. It would also put pro athletes into the strange world of playing in front of empty arena during the playoffs, which would be strange to say the least.
Coyle admitted on the call with the Bruins media that it would be “very bizarre,” but that it’s also something the players would be willing to do in order to bring the NHL back for everybody.
“We’ve thought about that and talked about it with whoever, teammates, friends, parents or whoever. It’s very bizarre to think about playing a very meaningful game with no fans in there. It’s almost like a practice atmosphere, you know? I don’t know,” said Coyle. “I don’t know what it would be like. I’ve never played an NHL game where there was nobody there, so it would be a new experience if that’s what it comes down to.
“If that’s what we have to do. The perfect scenario would be to have our fans there cheering us on because we love playing in front of these guys. They bring so much to our game and to our team. Just the atmosphere of it all, especially at playoff time. There is nothing like it. It wouldn’t be the same at all. I hope things can work out and we can get this thing figured out and everybody can get back to normal and living their normal lives — going to sporting events, big events and big crowds. If [playing to empty arenas is] what it comes down to then we’ll adjust accordingly, but we’ll definitely miss [the fans] and we’ll lose a part of our atmosphere and our team.”
As with most walks of life, things are going to feel “very bizarre” for a while amidst the coronavirus outbreak until time, and some scientific breakthroughs, can bring back normalcy. The world of the NHL doesn’t feel like it’s going to be any different in that regard.